Nahum
Chapter 3
1 Trouble to the violent city! It is full of lies and theft; the victims never escape.
2 The sound of a whip, the clatter of wheels, the pounding of horses, and the bouncing of chariots.
3 The rider raises both the shiny sword and the sparkling spear. There are many killed and lots of dead bodies, with no end to their remains; they trip over their own bodies.
4 Because the beautiful prostitute did many bad sexual things and used magic to control people, she sold entire nations and families.
5 I am against you, says God; and I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your bareness, and the kingdoms your disgrace.
6 I will throw disgusting dirt on you, make you unwanted, and put you on display for all to see.
7 Everyone who sees you will run away and say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed. Who will feel sorry for her? Where can I find someone to comfort you?’
8 Are you better than the crowded city of No, which was located by the rivers, surrounded by water, whose defense was the sea, and whose walls were also from the sea?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt gave her great power, and it had no limit; Put and Lubim were your helpers.
10 She was taken away and made a prisoner. Her young children were killed in the streets, they drew lots for her leaders, and all her important men were tied up with chains.
11 You will also get drunk; you will hide yourself; you too will look for strength because of the enemy.
12 Your strong places will be like fig trees with early figs: if shaken, they will fall right into the eater’s mouth.
13 Look, your people are weak like women; your land’s gates will be wide open to your enemies; fire will burn up your defenses.
14 Gather water for the siege, strengthen your defenses: go to the clay and step on the mortar, make the brick oven strong.
15 Fire will consume you; a sword will eliminate you, like a cankerworm it will devour you. Though you increase in number like cankerworms, though you multiply like locusts.
16 You have more traders than the stars in the sky: the locust destroys and then flies away.
17 Your leaders swarm like locusts, and your officials are like the big locusts that settle in the walls on a chilly day, but when the sun comes up they fly away, and no one knows where they go.
18 Your leaders sleep, O Assyrian king: your important people will lie in the dust: your people are spread on the mountains, and nobody brings them together.
19 Your injury cannot be healed; your wound is severe. Everyone who hears about you will clap their hands because your evil has affected everyone without stopping.